• Armstrong confesses to doping during all seven Tour wins• Disgraced former cyclist admits he was 'a bully' to team-mates• Denies that he ever ordered US Postal team-mates to dope • Says he was motivated by 'ruthless desire to win'• Claims he did not dope following 2009 comeback

Latest

14.10: So, after a gripping night's TV, and a fascinating day of fall-out, we'll wrap up this liveblog and point you elsehwere...

Related Articles

"His admission that he doped throughout his career is a small step in the right direction. But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities." Travis Tygart, head of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

"Lance Armstrong's decision finally to confront his past is an important step forward on the long road to repairing the damage that has been caused to cycling and to restoring confidence in the sport." Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI).

"After years of suspicion, I'm happy that this conspiracy was in the end nothing more than an unsubstantiated theory. Those who accused or suspected us are obviously disappointed. Nothing was ever hidden." Hein Verbruggen, former UCI president, to Dutch agency ANP on claims that the federation colluded with Armstrong to cover-up positive tests.

"There's nothing new from my point of view. All he did was affirm what the US Anti-Doping Agency had put out in a very substantial and irrefutable judgement some months ago... He denied that until this point but there was little doubt he was doing that and all he did was confirm that today in a very controlled manner."John Fahey, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

"We at the Livestrong Foundation are disappointed by the news that Lance Armstrong misled people during and after his cycling career, including us. We accepted his apology in order to move on and chart a strong, independent course." Livestrong, the cancer support charity that Armstrong set up.

"It felt good to hear him admit to doping... When he said he was behaving like a jerk during those years, I thought 'Lance, I could have told you that back then'... The more I think about the interview, the more conscious I become of the evasions and non-answers. His truth will come dropping slowly." David Walsh, Sunday Times journalist sued by Armstrong for alleging he doped.

"I think it's a huge, huge first step for Lance Armstrong... He did the right thing, finally. And it's never too late to tell the truth." Armstrong's former team-mate Tyler Hamilton .

"I'm really disappointed. He owed it to me. You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball. After what you've done to me, what you've done to my family and you couldn't own up to it. And now we're supposed to believe you?" Betsy Andreu, wife of Armstrong's former team-mate Frankie Andreu, on CNN.

"He was just the same frosty iceberg whose confessions are perhaps only 10 percent of what he has to say. The rest won't come from his lips but it will come." Eric Boyer, French former pro cyclist and part of the Change Cycling Now movement.

"I think it's a disgrace for the sport to have an athlete like this. He cheated the sport. He cheated many people around the world with his career, with his life story... It's just not the way to be successful. So I think he should suffer for his lies all these years." World tennis no.1 Novak Djokovic.

13.30: Here's the latest from Brendan Gallagher's webchat, which you can join here...

Question from Graham: Will the US Postal Service [a Federal organisation] take legal action against those responsible for the team doping ?

Brendan Gallagher: It is possible, that's part of the Landis scenaro whereby he has filed a Federal whsitleblowers complaint but I fancy it won't be that easy. I heard a lawyer today for example say that US Postal and the taxpayer got full value from Armstrong because at the time he was thought to be clean and all the sponsors etc got full value for their money and he didn't defraud them. Watch this space...

13.05: More on Shane Sutton's departure from his role as Team Sky's head coach from Jacquelin Magnay.

"The loss of a hands-on role for Sutton, who suffered a slight head injury when he was hit by a car just before Christmas, follows other significant changes to Brailsford's coaching set-up.

"Sean Yates, the coach who masterminded Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France victory in July, left last year. Yates was a former team-mate and close ally of Armstrong at Motorola, during the period which the American admits to doping. Yates left last year and Team Sky have confirmed there were no admissions as to drug taking that would have made him leave the team.

"Two more coaches, Bobby Julich and Steven de Jongh, admitted to breaking doping rules in the past and left the team with parachute financial payments.

"Sutton has been a energetic member of the Sky staff for more than 10 years. In the statement Team Sky says:''Despite stepping back from a day-to-day role within the team, Sutton's knowledge and experience will still be influential to Team Sky as they look to defend their status as number one team in the world.''

12.55:Exclusive story here from Jacquelin Magnay on Team Sky.

"Shane Sutton, the Team GB and Team Sky head coach has stepped down from his influential role overseeing the preparations of cyclists like Sir Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy to take up a part time advisory position.

"On the day that Lance Armstrong's mea culpa has dominated the global news, Sutton's re-positioning has been announced on the Team Sky website. He will now give specialist advice to team director Sir Dave Brailsford and have no direct link with the cyclists.

“I’m working in a support role alongside Dave as an advisor and a troubleshooter," said Sutton. "We’ve worked together for a long time and we’ve got a good working relationship.

“If there is an issue that the team has identified or an area that needs exploring then Dave will be able to bring me in and we can take a look at it."

More to come on this breaking story...

12.10 A number of riders from the current peloton have been speaking following Armstrong's confession.

Samuel Sánchez, the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider, repeated the mantra from within cycling that: today is different, let's move on guys. The Spaniard said: “It has all been acknowledged as a lie. He had the ambition, he said, but I want to look to the future and don't want to look back. The image of cycling suffered in that era, today it is totally different.”

Andy Schleck, whose brother Frank got kicked out of last year's Tour de France for doping, appears to believe Armstrong's claims that he rode clean following his 2009 comeback. “Armstrong said that after his comeback he no longer used doping. The biological passport and the out-of-competition controls have indeed changed cycling.”

Young German sprinter Marcel Kittel is hoping that Armstrong uses his expertise to help the authorities in their ongoing battle with doping. The Argos-Shimano rider, who regularly uses his Twiiter account to express his disdain for dopers said: “In the end it didn't surprise me that he confessed. There was nothing else for him to do. Now I hope that he doesn't only talk about it to Oprah Winfrey, but also shares his knowledge with important institutions like the World Anti-Doping Agency or the US Anti-Doping Agency. Plainly put: actually there was nothing new.”

11.45 Emma O’Reilly, the masseuse who worked closely with Armstrong at the US Postal Service team before spilling the beans in David Walsh's LAConfidentiel, has said she has no intention in counter-suing the American despite him describing her as an alcoholic prostitute.

Speaking on television following this morning's broadcast, O’Reilly explained that she felt sorry for the riders who doped.

“You could see when they went over to the dark side their personalities change, and I always felt it was an awful shame – these were young lads in the prime of their life having to make this awful decision, kind of living the dream, yet the dream is a nightmare.

“That was always why I had spoken out – it wasn’t about Lance, it was about drugs and cycling.

“All of this has never felt like vindication – I can't think of another word to use, but I hate that word because it suggests almost that there was some vindictiveness.

“I had only ever spoken about it because I hated seeing what some of the riders were going through, because not all the riders were comfortable with cheating as Lance was.”

"There can be no place for doping in sport and the IOC unreservedly condemns the actions of Lance Armstrong and all those who seek an unfair advantage against their fellow competitors by taking drugs," the IOC said.

"The IOC and its partners continue to wage a strong, sophisticated and continually evolving battle against doping in sport. While not perfect, the methods are ever improving, with blood passports and the ability to test athletes 24/7 in and out of competition proving to be effective deterrents.

"But as this case highlights, the fight against doping requires the co-operation and involvement of a wide range of stakeholders, including public authorities.

"This is indeed a very sad day for sport but there is a positive side if these revelations can begin to draw a line under previous practices. It is the IOC's firm expectation that all parties involved will draw the necessary lessons from this case and continue to take all measures to ensure a level playing field for all athletes.

"We now urge Armstrong to present all the evidence he has to the appropriate anti-doping authorities so that we can bring an end to this dark episode and move forward, stronger and cleaner."

11.00 Here's a little video from the archives for you viewing 'pleasure'. Why, though, are we including this clip from stage 18 of the 2004 Tour de France?

After Italian rider Filippo Simeoni testified in courst saying that Armstrong started doping in 1993 - they both shared a doctor in Michele Ferrari - the American waged a one-man war against the Domina-Vacanze rider.

Simeoni, who had just one significant race win to his name at the time, had made a move in an attempt to join a six-man breakaway. Usual protocol in this situation would be for the race leader, providing nobody in the break posed any threat to his overall lead, to allow the riders their moment of fleeting exposure and possible glory.

Not, though, if you were a rider who had upset Armstrong. After seeing Simeoni go on up the road, Armstrong chased him down before catching him.

"Armstrong and I spoke as the peloton was catching us but I prefer not to say what he said," Simeoni said afterwards. Later the American was seen making the sign of zipping lips as as sent out a very clear message to the peloton: mess with me, and I'll screw you over.

"It might seem strange what I say," said Bassons. "As fake as he seems, he suffered at the hands at the hands of a system, and within that system he created his own system. I wouldn't hang up on him [if he called], I would listen to him and why not meet up with him?"

10.15 Christophe Bassons, the rider nicknamed 'Mr Clean' for his refusal to dope during an era when widespread use of EPO was rife throughout the peloton, has dismissed Armstrong's confession, saying that despite confessing he found it diffucult to believe him 100 per cent.

The 38 year-old earned worldwide notoriety during the 1999 Tour de France when he wrote in his column for Le Parisien that he was "shocked" by Lance Armstrong's performances at that year's race.

Armstrong later launched a bitter attack on the Française des Jeux rider while the peloton rounded on him for breaking the omertà, cycling's unwritten code of silence. Bassons' career was effectively ended by Armstrong's bullying tactics after he later withdrew from the race.

"Five months of depression followed," Bassons explains. "When [Armstrong] says now that you can't win the Tour de France seven times without doping, he's clearly repeating what I said on the '99 Tour and it's for that reason, actually, that he came to see me to tell me that I was hurting cycling and should leave [the race]."

Almost 14 years after the two first crossed swords, Bassons describedtoday's confession as: "cold".

"He didn't let any sentiment show, even when he spoke of regrets. Well, that's Lance Armstrong," Bassons said. "There's a always a portion of lies in what he says, in my opinion. He's not totally honest even in his so-called confession. I think he admits some of it to avoid saying the rest."

Asked if he believed Armstrong rode clean following his comeback in 2009, the Frenchman said he found it difficult to believe.

"I don't believe that," he said. "It's a good thing that he admitted taking EPO, testosterone and transfusions, but the rest I have trouble believing."

Meanwhile, reports are coming in from South Wales that Lance has been knocked off the top of the news agenda by a loaf of bread ...

<noframe>Twitter: Huw Williams - Lance bumped off top slot by a report on neighbors fighting over a loaf of bread in South Wales panic buying incident. He won't like that</noframe>

09.45 David Millar, the reformed British doper, is back on his crusade to rid the world of dopes and he is starting off in Spain where we can only assume he will be pretty busy ...

<noframe>Twitter: David Millar - In Madrid on invitation of Ana Mu&ntilde;oz, director of new Spanish anti-doping agency AEA. Talking about how we fucked up &amp; how to prevent it.</noframe>

09.30 One man who appear to appears not to have been mentioned today - or during the interview - was JohanBruyneel, Armstrong's directeursportif for his seven Tour de France 'victories'.

The Belgian, who now lives in London, also managed Alberto Contador for his two Tour de France to make him the most successful directeursportif in the sport's history.

Despite the systematic doping program employed in the US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams Bruyneel even had the arrogance to write a book about how he and Lance plotted their domination of the Tour in We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind Eight Tour de France Victories. Bruyneel, though,missed out the bit about needles, blood and EPO.

Still, at least you can't accuse him of sticking his head in the sand ...

09.15 Armstrong's cold contempt for the sport remains as significant as ever and he is beyond redemption, writes Brendan Gallagher in his analysis proceedings.

"As feared, he told us exactly what he wanted to tell us," writes Brendan. "It was and is a PR exercise, pure and simple, but then we knew that. The lies and the evasiveness continue."

09.00 Greg LeMond, the three-time winner of the Tour de France and a fierce campaigner for clean cycling, has hit out at Armstrong saying that his claims that you must dope to win the three-week stage race tarnishes the name of past winners who rode on 'bread and water'.

LeMond, who remains the only American to have won the Tour after Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles, has said the Texan “has destroyed anyone who has been successful in cycling" and that he was no better than "average" before taking to the needle.

“If Armstrong had given Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton the same stuff he was taking, he would never have won – they would have beaten him,” LeMond told cyclingnews.com.

“I get p***** off when I hear that you can’t win the Tour without doping. Look at Andy Hampsten [winner of the 1988 Giro d’Italia, third in the 1989 Giro and fourth in the Tour in 1986 and 1992] – there was no way he was on any doping program.”

08.30 Brian Cookson, British Cycling president, reckons Armstrong is just a tad gutted that he got rumbled.

"I don't think he's sorry, he's just sorry he got caught," said Cookson. "I don't know whether there was complicity or conspiracy. It doesn't look promising - [there was] some degree of looking the other way and that's being generous to the people at the time. There is more to come. Oprah isn't doing too bad a job, she's been reasonably persistent, let's see what comes out in the second half."

Cookson added that the Texan, too, had pretty low morals: "Here's a man who, when challenged on 'was it the most sophisticated doping conspiracy ever' answered we [US Postal Service] weren’t as bad as the East Germans. Blimey, if that is where you set your moral bench mark, that tells a story of its own."

Novak Djokovic - obviously - has been chipping in with his take on the whole shebang. "I think it's a disgrace for the sport to have an athlete like this," said the world No 1 tennis player.

"He cheated the sport. He cheated many people around the world with his career, with his life story. I think they should take all his titles away because it's not fair towards any sportsman, any athlete. It's just not the way to be successful. So I think he should suffer for his lies all these years."

Djokovic added that he beleives the top-tier of tennis is clean: "the results are showing that. In the last few years there maybe has been one or two cases, but those players were more or less outside of the top 100. We are keeping this sport clean. We are working towards it. There is awareness with the players and with the officials. As long as it is like that, we are in a good road."

Just to lighten ptroceedings, here's a quite marvellous quote from Christian Prudhomme, race director of the Tour de France ...

<noframe>Twitter: Pete Maxwell - My favourite quote of all this so far comes from Christian Prudhomme: "Armstrong is the past - Yorkshire is the future." <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=TDF2014" target="_blank">#TDF2014</a></noframe>

08.00 The International Cycling Union (UCI) has described Armstong's confession as "an important step forward" as the world governing body of the sport let out an almost audible sigh of relief after the American refused to finger them following allegation of collusion between the parties.

In a carefully prepared statement, UCI president Pat McQuaid says “Lance Armstrong’s decision finally to confront his past is an important step forward on the long road to repairing the damage that has been caused to cycling and to restoring confidence in the sport.

“Lance Armstrong has confirmed there was no collusion or conspiracy between the UCI and Lance Armstrong. There were no positive tests which were covered up and he has confirmed that the donations made to the UCI were to assist in the fight against doping.

“It was disturbing to watch him describe a litany of offences including among others doping throughout his career, leading a team that doped, bullying, consistently lying to everyone and producing a backdated medical prescription to justify a test result.

“However, Lance Armstrong also rightly said that cycling is a completely different sport today than it was 10 years ago. In particular the UCI's introduction of the biological passport in 2008 – the first sports federation to do so - has made a real difference in the fight against doping.

“Finally, we note that Lance Armstrong expressed a wish to participate in a truth and reconciliation process, which we would welcome.”

"I think we had some truth from Lance, but he was very guarded about certain things. I think there is still more to come out, I think we do need to hear names now... It is not just Lance by himself.

"I think that we really need to get a proper investigation now that Lance is saying these things. It has to be heard in front of law to actually get to the bottom of this.

"There [were] doctors supplying him and people around him helping him, and we need to get into more than just the one athlete."

RachelRay, in her review of the Oprah Winfrey interview, says that "Armstrong came across as more clever and calculating than forthcoming" while reporting that he had reportedly hired Mark Fabiani, the former White House special counsel who advised President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair.

07.15 Phil Liggett, the veteran voice of cycling, has been talking to Sky Sports News from Adelaide where he is ahead of the Tour Down Under which starts on Sunday when the new cycling season gets underway.

Liggett, who has been criticised by many for being an Armstrong apologist, said that he was "a little bit disappointed" with the 'news' that he doped while confirming what most of the cycling fraternity has known for years: "it was not about the bike, it was about the drugs."

The commentator, after watching Winfrey's interview, said he now wanted to know "who helped him" dope "throughout his entire career."

When asked whether he thought Armstrong doped following his 2009 comeback - when he produced an astonishing ride to finish third in the Tour de France to deny Britain its first podium place in the race's history after Bradley Wiggins finished fourth - Liggett said that "it doesn't quite all add up."

07.00

David Walsh, meanwhile, has said that despite Armstrong's admission that there are "too many questions not answered" while saying that "Betsy Andreu will be disgusted" after he refused to admit to their infamous converstaion in Indiana University Hospital. It was in Indiana where Betsy, the wife of Armstrong's former US Postal Service team-mate Frankie, claims she heard him tell doctors that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during before he was being treated for cancer.

Indeed, it would appear that Walsh has, once again, hit the nail firmly on its head.

"The evidence from USADA is that Armstrong's blood tests show variations in his blood that show with absolute certainty he was doping after 2005," Fahey told Jacquelin Magnay . "Believe USADA or believe Armstrong? I know who to believe.

"It struck me that the statute of limitations under US law might be revelant and Armstrong would not want to admit to anything in regards to his comeback (in 2009) that might be picked up under the US criminal code."

06.30 Morning all. Thanks to Raf Sanchez over in Washington for keeping us all updated throughout the early hours. So Lance Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs. Who would have thought it? Well, David Walsh of the Sunday Times did and has been saying so for years. Walsh's initial reaction to the interview was positive ...

<noframe>Twitter: David Walsh - First reaction is Oprah began the interview brilliantly with her series of 'yes or no' questions. It felt good to hear him admit to doping.</noframe>

Armstrong, said James, was "not a guy that looked particularly full of regret" and appeared "arrogant even".

05.55 I mentioned earlier that one of the most bitter episodes in this whole tale came when Armstrong denounced Betsy Andreu, the wife of his former team-mate who claimed she had heard him admit to doping while he was being treated for cancer in an Indiana hospital.

Here he is in a 2005 deposition (where he's under oath) adamantly denying that episode ever took place and insisting that he never took performance-enhancing drugs.

During tonight's interview he seemed to signal again that the hospital incident had never happened but clearly conceded the larger point: that he had doped repeatedly.

Armstrong needed this session with Winfrey more than even her somewhat flailing cable network needed it. He needed it to pursue an adjustment of his lifetime ban from the sports that he loves. He needed it to rehabilitate his relationships. And he needed it to begin restoring his name, though that is something of a fool’s errand.

Yet what the session proved is just how much tension a report exceeding 1,000 pages, with testimony from 26 people, can drain from a high-profile interview. Armstrong could share little in the way of insight because that report, delivered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in October, delivered it all, despite Armstrong’s most vicious and relentless attempts to prevent it.

05.00 Our friends at NowThisNews have cut some footage from the interview:

04.30 The USADA, America's anti-doping agency, have put out this statement:

Tonight, Lance Armstrong finally acknowledged that his cycling career was built on a powerful combination of doping and deceit.

His admission that he doped throughout his career is a small step in the right direction. But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities

Pretty big. Armstrong admitted to doping during all seven of his Tour de France victories, saying he used a "cocktail" of blood boosters, blood transfusions and steroids. He conceded that he had been "a bully" to team-mates, lied under oath, and repeatedly smeared people who stood up against him. "I viewed this situation as one big lie," he said.

Wow. Was there anything Oprah didn't get out of him?

Quite a lot actually. He denied that he was at the centre of a sophisticated network designed to conceal his doping, claiming that his own use of performance enhancers was no greater than what others were doing. He also denied ever issuing a "direct order" to members of the team that he co-owned, instructing them to take up doping. He challenged details of the accounts given by several of his accusers and said he had never bribed cycling authorities to conceal positive tests.

-

03.36 Betsy Andreu, the wife of his former team-mate who accused him of doping, is on CNN now. How did she feel hearing Armstrong once again claim that her story wasn't true? She cries as she answers:

This was a guy who used to be my friend and who decimated me. He owes it to me to come clean, he owed it to the sport.

03.35 And there we go, part one done. Tomorrow night: how he dealt with his fans, sponsors and the cancer victims he claimed to be working for.

03.30 And now to the future: will you cooperate with authorities to help clean up cycling?

If there was a truth and reconciliation commission, if they have it and I'm invited I will be the first man through the door.

03.26 Lance says he "would give anything to go back to that day" and not contest the effort by USADA, the antidoping agency, to take him down for doping. If he could do it again he says he would have asked for a few days to call family, supporters, sponsors to apologise and then he would have held up his hands and admitted it.

<noframe>Twitter: david carr - When someone lives about the law, watching them come to grips with reality is always going to be compelling.</noframe>

03.25 He describes his relief when US federal prosecutors inexplicably dropped charges against him February 2012:

<noframe>Twitter: Jacquelin Magnay - Lance armstrong "I thought I was out of the woods" when US Fed authorities dropped their investigation.</noframe>

03.15 One of the tipping points in Armstrong's downfall were the accusations from Floyd Landis, a former team-mate who won the Tour de France only to be stripped of it after testing positive. Armstrong denied Landis's claims to the American media and even today says Landis was angry about Armstrong's comeback in 2009.

Lance believes that if he never made that comeback (he failed to win either of his last Tours) then he would never have been caught.

03.12 He's asked about the vicious things he said about Betsy Andreu, the wife of a former team-mate who claimed to have heard Armstrong admit to his cancer doctors that he had taken performance enhancing drugs. He says he regrets calling her "crazy" and "a b-----" but is quietly adamant that the episode in an Indiana hospital never happened.

He says he spoke to her and her husband for 40 minutes recently but says it wasn't enough to erase the hurt.

03.10 Wow.

<noframe>Twitter: Mark Hughes - Armstrong can't remember suing a former masseuse who claimed he was doping: "We sued so many people...I am sure we did."</noframe>

03.00 And what about Emma O'Reilly, the Irish team masseuse who exposed some of his early doping and who Lance accused of being an alcoholic prostitute?

She's one of these people that I have to apologise to. She's one of these people that got run over, got bullied.

02.57 Armstrong is being asked about a donation he made to the International Cycling Union, the body that did some of the drug testing. Was that donation a bribe for them to make positive results go away? Absolutely not, says Lance.

02.55 I'd say this is a fair assessment of where the interview has gone so far. But we still have some more tough questions about how he could brazenly sue people who he knew were telling the truth.

02.53 Lance Armstrong is 41 years old and acknowledges he will be remembered forever for this scandal.

I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologise to people

02.50 Truly bizarre moment: Armstrong says he looked up the definition of 'cheater' and satisfied himself that he didn't qualify because he wasn't giving himself an unfair advantage (because everyone else was doping).

<noframe>Twitter: Heidi N. Moore - Lance Armstrong tried to figure out if he was cheating by going to a dictionary and looking up "cheating." True story.</noframe>

02.47 Oprah confronts him with a clip after his 2005 victory, where he said he felt sorry for the cynics who didn't believe that the Tour de France was an honest race through hard work and determination. It was an extraordinary act of deceit and hubris. He looks sheepish rather than tormented by it.

That was the last time I won the Tour de France. That was what you leave with? You can leave with better that, Lance. That was lame.

02.43 So why did you do it? Why the doping and why the incredible cover up and defiance in the face of the truth?

I think just this ruthless desire to win, to win at all costs. It served me well on the bike, it served me well during the disease but the level it went to is a flaw.

02.40 We're moving to softer stuff now. "I'm flawed, deeply flawed," he says as he describes himself as both a "a jerk" and "a humanitarian".

02.37 He's being asked about Michele Ferrari, the Italian doctor described by doping authorities as a maestro of professional drugging. Armstrong defended him in the past but today admits the doctor was involved.

<noframe>Twitter: Mark Hughes - Armstrong. Doping was "like saying we have to have air in our tyres, we have to have water in our bottles."</noframe>

02.28 So the vibe of this thing. Oprah is being pretty firm with him, belaying concerns that this was going to be all softball. Armstrong looks well-prepared and grim-faced. He's confessing to a lot of the facts around the drug use but pushing back more against the idea that he was a monster who destroyed the lives of people around him.

<noframe>Twitter: Neal Mann - <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Armstrong" target="_blank">#Armstrong</a> says he took a ruthless win it all attitude developed fighting cancer in to cycling (he was already doping before he got cancer)</noframe>

02.27 Lance is now denying that pressured other team members into doping.

I was the leader of the team, the leader of any team leads by example and there was never any direct order or directive that you have to do this.

But he admits there was "a level of expectation" that may have pressured other riders into doping. He also agrees that he was "a bully".

02.25 We're in ad break. In the meantime here's a little more information on EPO or Erythropoietin, the drug Armstrong just confessed to:

Erythropoietin (pronounced, ah-rith-ro-poy-tin, and abbreviated, EPO) is a relatively recent entry into the deceitful pursuit of glory. EPO is a protein hormone produced by the kidney. After being released into the blood stream it binds with receptors in the bone marrow, where it stimulates the production of red blood cells (erythrocytes).

Medically, EPO is used to treat certain forms of anemia (e.g., due to chronic kidney failure). Logically, since EPO accelerates erythrocyte production it also increases oxygen carrying capacity. This fact did not long escape notice of the athletic community.

02.20 Armstrong says the last time he doped was 2005 and that he was clean during his comeback in 2009, when he finished third in the TdF. He says the accusation that he doped on those final rides angered him. Oprah's question is spot on:

Are we talking semantics here? Are we talking semantics?

02.16 Lance laughs and says "we would need a long time" to describe how he actually got away with taking the drugs. He says his "cocktail" was EPO, an oxygen enhancer, blood transfusions, and testosterone. But he says he was not afraid of being caught because authorities so rarely tested outside of the immediate racing period.

"It's a question of scheduling," he says as he describes outwitting the drug testers.

<noframe>Twitter: Rob Harris - Armstrong: "There wasn't that much out-of-competition-testing ... so you aren't going to get caught"</noframe>

02.14 He says the few men who weren't doping were "heroes" and denies that he ever considered them "suckers" for not taking part in the wide-spread doping culture.

02.10 Armstrong says he is not here to blame others but it was "not possible" to win the TdF during his time without doping. But he's being confronted with the 160-page USADA report that describes the sophisticated network he developed to cover up his doping.

He flatly denies that saying he and his accomplices were "conservative" and "risk-averse" and not really doing anything different to what others were doing at the time.

02.07 He admits that he doped during his seven consecutive Tour de France victories and admits to taking a whole string of drugs. So why come clean now, after 13 years of defiance? "I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," he says. He admits that he couldn't live up to the "mythical" story of his own victories, both in sport and over cancer.

02.00 Here we go: dramatic voice-over tracking the downfall of the superstar. And then to the key question:

01.55 One of the key allegations against Armstrong comes his former team-mate, Frankie Andreu, and his wife, Betsy. The Andreus claim that they were in a hospital room with Armstrong in 1996 while he was recovering from cancer where he allegedly told doctors he had taken a long list of performance-enhancing drugs.

After falling out with Armstrong and making their allegations public, the Andreus found themselves on the receiving end of a brutal campaign by Lance and his allies. Will Armstrong address his treatment of his former friends? Let's wait and see.

That a former member of the British royal family would choose an American interviewer for a confessional interview surely reveals something about Winfrey’s clout as the world’s premier celebrity confessor.

In a bizarre, rambling appearance, a shaken Duchess admitted to trying to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew after being caught on camera doing so in an undercover sting video.

Confessional: The Duchess of York with Oprah

01.40 The expectation is that he's going to admit to doping at some stage in his career and offer some sort of apology. But there are lots of questions still:

1) How extensive will his confession be? Will he claim that the doping was limited to a small portion of his career?

2) Will he admit he was at the centre of an elaborate network designed to conceal his doping?

3) Will he apologise to the former team-mates who have testified against him and who he accused of being liars?

4) How will he justify the years of deceit?

01.35 The interview was filmed on Monday and has been aggressively previewed but we still don't really know what Armstrong is going to say or how extensive his confession is. Oprah has been teasing in her few appearances since the interview. Here's what she had to say:

1.30am GMT Hello and welcome to our live coverage as Lance Armstrong - a man who defeated cancer and won the Tour de France seven consecutive times - faces his toughest challenge yet. In half an hour we will the first round of his face off with Oprah Winfrey, the high priestess who takes the confessions of America's disgraced superstars.